Q&A
UPD 07/08/2006
How did you get Jack and his buddies to beat up Gerard then have one guy point to a car pulling up?

Jaydee:
well here's interactions I used in that scene:

punch (from sims 2 machinima tool /black paw box object)
shove
play punch you punch me
fall out of dancing sphere
sleep on floor
browse shop items placed low on the ground
parnk-waterbaloon (guy pointing)
I was curious abut the yearbook and the rose in Helena,were did you get it?
Jaydee: I've made them myself :) the rose was a maxis dating rose that sims get after great date just without the vase and i made the yearbook out of the regular maxis book, just modified the mesh a bit.
I was wondering how you got your site to look so good. A program of some sort? Or did you use all html? I also would like to know how you made your pictures so well.

Jaydee: I used adobe photoshop cs to create the site layout both the graphics and partially the html codes. (i used slices tool to divide graphics into separate images and then used save for web option, so it already created an html layout.) then later i used homesite 5 to write codes that appear in text field. and that's more or less it..
how did you make the wrightings on the book?
Jaydee: I made them in photoshop, i found a font that looked like handwriting.
One question though, in the explanation of the Helena video the scenes are in a different order then what they are in the video, why's that?

Jaydee:
It's because the events in the video are not in chronological order.
I want to know where you got the guitars for Skater Boy. ex. The ones from the concert(the black and white one and the red and black one)

Jaydee:
Those were guitars by Atavera @ modthesims2.com. I have a link posted on the movie cc page
In your tutorials you included some snapshots and I really liked the clothes your sims were wearing! can you tell me where to get them?
Jaydee:
i think they're from modthesims and 4eversimfantasy.net
ANONOMOUS: I just want to ask if you have any ideas for upcoming movies.
Jaydee:
yes, I do, but I'm not sure which one should I go with

[Nikki]
in skater boy movie well their first kiss... i never can figure out how to make them twirl around and junk. please help

Jaydee: to make them twirl around and junk you need to enable cinematics in your camera game options. not all graphic cards support that though

Can you make me into a sim?
Jaydee: You gotta be kidding me!
Tyler: What's your fave mcr song?
Jaydee: Well, my favorite is probably Helena, cuz that's how it all started. I've decided to make a video to that song, then started listening to the whole record and fell in love with all the other songs. I love It's Not a Fashion Statement.., Cemetery Drive, I never told you what i do for living, hang them high.. ok it looks like I'm gonna list all the songs on the record now lol the truth is .. all of them are f*cking awesome!
sicilydao: what's the song of the helenateaserq70.wmv?who's the artist?
Jaydee: It's My Chemical Romance. And the song is called Demolition Lovers it's from their 1st record


Addie : Actually, I would like to add interactions/animations to Paul's reaction tester (because it has the overlay option). You said something about how you added interactions to the Sims 2 Machinima Tool. HOW???

Jaydee:
Well, you definately will need simPE.. but as for paul's reaction tester, i have no idea myself. it's built in a differnt way then that machinima tool. I couldn't even replace an existing animation, It's somewhere in bhavs and not in text lists. btw even if you manage to insert it into paul's tester, not all animations will support overlay. only ones that have -spine- in their name should work, as these are animations of the upper body only. well there are some but not that many. and as for your 1st question.. well I can't explain everything here.. 1st you will need to extract lists of animations from objects00.package and sims00.package files and then the easy way - you just replace the existing animations with yours by editing the anim text lists or the hard way is to add new bhav function for each of the animations. so first you edit anim lists, then pie menu strings, then clone the bhav and change the operand number to the one that is in anim list and then finally add new object functions making reference to your bhav and pie menu string. yep I know the explanation was crystal clear, but that's how you do it lol
How do you get more than 8 sims into your shots?
Jaydee:
You need to use Tombstone of L&D
Check out this article at Sims99:

http://www.sims99.com/articles/boolprop-testing.php
there's explanations about spawn option so you sould look there

when I are going to download Helena or Gerard Way or one of those, where should I save them? In what file?

Jaydee: You need to unzip these files first, then double-click on them and choose install when the dialog window comes up.

Here's also a great tutorial at MTS:
http://www.modthesims2.com/article.php?p=1085866


Kevin: I'm eagerly awaiting to see what idea you have in store next. :) ;) Are you thinking on uploading a series?

Jaydee: I don't think it would be a right 'thing' for me.. as usually, before I start making a movie I have like 50% of it in my head.. the other 50% comes to me while I'm making it. So I often change my mind about certain things and like if you want to change sth at the end, you need to change sth at the beginning as well.. so imagine if my first ep is released.. I won't be able to do that anymore..
Which interactions you used when Helena was looking around the bathroom, and when her husband slaped her?

Jaydee: Helena looking around was a part of prank->water ballon interaction and the other one was a pillow fight. I used sims 2 studio black box which i modified and I put interactions I needed for the movie in there. The link where you can download the original box is on Helena custom content page.
Where did you get the rose in Helena?

Jaydee: It's a maxis NL dating rose. I just deleted the vase and rotated the rose mesh.. well and recolored it. (The original was red.)
Micavity: is there actually a cheat to get rid of plumbobs?
Jaydee:
YES THERE IS
Plumbbobtoggle [on/off] but it's for OFB only.

you need to enter boolprop testingcheatsenabled on -> shift+click on that thing and choose delete when dialog window comes up

more info about getting rid of stuff like plumbobs here:
http://www.jd-movies.com/tips.html#game
..and all over other message boards and sims sites
Nadya:I'd like to know if you can tell me where did you got the things that are under the bed in NANM

Jaydee: Well, I'm not sure where I got the basketball, but everything else was maxis stuff. Here you can download several collections of maxis random stuff that doesn't show up in buy mode. pretty useless for playing the game but comes in handy when making movies :)
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=131127
Rena: could you please make a movie to the somg my happy ending? thanks

Jaydee: No, sorry, i don't take requests. I, too like that song vey much, but the whole message and the story about a girl being disappointed with her relationship.. there are already 100ds of videos with similar plot and I don't think I'd have something new to say about it
Celeste: I have one question. Where do you go to get a sim to plead then make them cry. I still can't seem to get that position mastered yet.

Jaydee: What you need to do is....
1 set prefer overlay in pauls reaction tester flags
2 choose cry interaction (or any other one you need)
3. choose overlay when dialog window comes up and right after that..
4. tell a sim to plead
so they'll be on their knees but their upper boddy will be still performing 'crying' animation.
Punkchiqe: I have one question to ask, you said you modified the Reaction Test box, is it available for download somewhere?

Jaydee: Well, it keeps overwriting the original box, so I don't think it would be fair to the creator if I put it for upload. I need to clone it again with tutorial to make sure i do everything right. I've got a box with ofb reactions that i guess i could share with you guys because the other one is a mess I don't think I myself could use it now. just i need to clone it 100% right
Nalle: In your grate movie, helena, helane, wears a towell, around her body, and, i relly wanna now, where you gor that from? I hope you wil answer me.

Jaydee: You can get it from here:
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=128979

I also made custom content list with stuff used in helena so you may check it out if you want:
http://www.jd-movies.com/helenacc.html
Julia: I was just thinking, on the first kiss interaction- don't little hearts and stuff come up and not light? And, if so, how d'you get rid of the light? You said a guy played the interaction on himself? That musta looked funny.

Jaydee: Like yeah when you have cinematics turned off you get hearts, but if you have it on, you get to see a movie and i guess there are big hearts floating but they are separate objects so they don't show up when I use reaction tester box. and also you get to see some light.. that animation does look very weird in the game itself. they don't float up in the air and everyting looks pretty messed up I don't think it could be used in a movie. Here's couple of pix what it looks like with visible sim:

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g295/_jaydee/pic1.jpg
http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g295/_jaydee/pic2.jpg
Addie: I noticed that throughout your Helena video there is fast movement and then it slows down in just one clip. Like when you zoom in on the yearbook at the beginning, the zoom starts fast and then slows. I was wonder how you do this. I only know how to slow down or speed up a whole clip.
Jaydee:
This was velocity envelope. I use it all the time to slow down or speed up clips. when you rigtclick on a clip -> choose insert envelope -> velocity then you'll see a green line appear inside the clip. you can add points by rightclicking on it and then if you raise one point and lower another one then at first the video will play very fast and then it will slow down. ok, maybe this wasn't too clear but if you read this while looking at the editor, I guess you'll get it..
k8: I wanted to know... did you use an effect in the begginging of Helena and if so, what is it?
Jaydee: Yeah, I did some levels adjustments. Well but I'm not sure how to explain this. I turned up higher and lower levels, so the dakest parts of the image were even darker and the highlights got brighter.
Marielle:
Also, I noticed that it takes you like 6 months to make a new movie. (I know that you dont like to talk about upcoming movies cause you change your mind) but, that whole time are you filming?
Jaydee: Well, I started making the movie in February, but it's not like I was making it all the time. Sometimes I just HAD to do some other things and well, I'm not just a sims movie maker, I'm also a sims player... :) So basically if I had to count I think it took me around 2-2.5 months to make it. Actually filming part didn't take most of the time. The hardest part for me was to come up with interactions, and to set everything up (like you know make the content, build sets and so on).
Do you think that their should be a limit to how many times a director can win Movie of the month?
Jaydee: well I think there could be a limit but within certain frame of time. Yeah, I have 3 awards it's like more than enough, but like someday maybe like in a year or 2 I think it would be nice to win again but well, right now I've no idea what the movie will be like.. I'm not even sure which one it will be so... but well I think I have a plan.. about the thing you were asking about....
how do you get the 'night' effect? I am making a scene myself and I just can't do it XD!!!

Jaydee: actually I dont think I did anything special there. I used gunmod hack when I was making bedroom scene. well I had to remove 1 wall segment, so it was a bit darker than it would be inside just unlit room. I also put couple of blue lights there and later in editor.. I don't know I did a bit of levels correction and applied a blue filter, bu I wouln't say it changed like alot. I remember there is some effect in vegas called 'night' so maybe you should try that.
Anyways, I was wondering what equipment would I need to have in order to play Sims and make movies/videos?

Jaydee: Well, as far as software is concerned you'll need some video editing program (like windows movie maker, vegas etc) and sims2 game of course. minimum game requirements are 32mb graphics card 256mb ram and 800mhz processor, but for movie making you'll prbably need at least 128mb graphics card, as you will want to run game on highest settings, more ram at least 512mb and a better processor and of course lots of free disk space. Hope it helped oh yeah almost forgot.. you will also need patience.. and LOTS of it
Emino: how can i make a sim receive a phone call. i think you can help me. can you?

Jaydee: Well you can try to do this -> enter boolprop cheat and shift click the mailbox then choose 'make friends for me' option. Now your sim will have a bunch of sims as frineds with 55 relationship points. then you wait a couple of days, when the relationships score is closer to 50 all those ppl will start calling your sim. so the phone will be ringing all the time without stopping. But if you want them to react in a specific way you better make a call yourself and then put together the shots of phone ringing and the sim talking.
EZ: can you get any good, free movie editors?
Jaydee: Start-> programs -> windows movie maker... but it's not that good lol. You can try vegas for free for 30 days.

Brittany: i was wondering if you know where i could find the hair styles of adult skater girls friends and the car from not another nightlife movie Jaydee: I'm pretty sure I got all that stuff from modthesims..
The car is here:
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=91918

Hairstyles:
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=80211
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=45108
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=78530
Hope that helped :)
moodygenius922: Your movies are nice but can you venture out into a whole new world and do something unheard of?

well, i'm not a genuis and never claimed to be one. maybe this will sound selfish, but i make movies for myself and not to impress anybody else. i see what you mean actually. maybe i'll learn to be better at storytelling but as for now.. i've created many stories in my head during all my lifetime and I'd love to see them on a screen one day whether they are good or not. i know that the things that makes me stand out is the quality not the origiality.. but well.. nobody's perfect and i'm not a genius, just a normal hardworking person.

how did you make it flash in skater boy after it went... "she needed to come back down to earrrth" and it went close to her eyes and then there was a flash but there isnt a flash transition in wmm

Jaydee: It was a fade out to white. It should be in effects
EZ: how do you make a web page like this? I want to but I'm not sure what program to use or where to start. Can you give me some pointers?

Jaydee: First you decide what the site will look like and create the graphics in some image editor. (I used photoshop). Then you will need some program for creating web pages (like Homesite, Frontpage or Dreamweaver). But better look for some html tutorials with examples if you are completely new to it.
EZ: how did u get the guy to carry that bag thing in not another NL movie and light it, u know, at the beginning.

Jaydee: Somebody from the household had to have a horrible date with the guy. So later that day he came with uh.. gift
EZ: I was just wondering how u got those arches in 'not another NL movie', the ones that you looked through where the girl and hot guy were sitting in the booth?

Jaydee: http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=56181
Leslie: Quick question, how did u get that guys head to appear in the crystal ball? Jaydee: Jaydee: Well... the quick answer -> using event pan/crop tool in Vegas Long answer - > I made 2 shots. One with the crystal ball and the other one with the guy on the white background. Then I put those clips on separate videotracks in vegas and made one with the guy 40% transparent. I also edited it with pan/crop tool to make it move together with the crystal ball and I also applied round shaped mask with blurred edges to make it look as if the image was inside the ball
when jenny was thinking of them getting married how did you get those stars to come everywhere?

Jaydee:
It was lens flare effect in Vegas